The Hat and the Hair
by PynkPlayar
Summary: Everyone knows Echizen Ryoma by his signature Fila cap. Everyone knows Ryuuzaki Sakuno by her long, twin braids. But how did they come to be? An interpreted story behind the hat and the hair.


**The Hat and the Hair****  
**A Prince of Tennis Fanfic  
Written by PynkPlayar

**Disclaimer: **Prince of Tennis characters belong to Takeshi Konomi**  
Rated:** K**  
Warning:** Inaccuracy & un-canoness may be found (sorry).**  
Note:** A cute fic between the a-dor-able Ponta Pair I thought of.

Started 04-16-2009. Finished 04-19-2009 (at 3:50am, mind you ^^;)

**Summary: **Everyone knows Echizen Ryoma by his signature Fila cap. Everyone knows Ryuuzaki Sakuno by her long, twin braids. But how did they come to be? An interpreted story behind the hat and the hair.

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[_6 years ago…_]

_They were vacationing in Tokyo under the broad, blue sky._

_Echizen Rinko was sitting in a refined hotel room, unhappy with her husband. They flew over 5,000 miles and spent hundreds of dollars –only to play more tennis._

_Things were getting too out of hand. Since Ryoma's birth, Nanjirou had been insistently pushing tennis on their son._

_At six years of age, it already became an addiction. It was impossible to stop. Everyday, she would watch her son swinging his racket clumsily; she witnessed when he, in a wobbly manner, would totter over to where he predicted the ball would land only to trip on his two feet and collapse in a gust of dust. He didn't need a reason to play so religiously in his age of innocence; he just did._

_And yet, he had limited interaction with others. He didn't have any friends and he only spoke when necessary. Day by day, it seemed like his responses were getting shorter and blunter._

_The direction he was going, Ryoma may end up reverting back to primitive tongue with his only friend being his father._

_And with that last (horrid) thought, Rinko decided to take action._

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"_Mmhmm. Okay. Alright, thank you."_

"_Who did you just talk to?"_

"_A daycare center."_

"_Oh, ok—wait, a daycare center!?!"_

"_Yes, Nanjiroh, a daycare center. You know, where they watch children?"_

"_But why???"_

"_I want to give Ryoma a chance to socialize with others. Maybe a new environment will help."_

"_Rinko, the boy doesn't need friends. Just a racket and a ball. Besides, he already has me!"_

"_Nanjiroh!!"_

"_What???"_

"_Look, we take Ryoma to the center, drop him off, and then we have sometime to ourselves." She lowered her head, but kept her eyes on her husband. "Just the two of us."_

_And with those last words, Nanjiroh sped the Echizens off to the streets of Tokyo_

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[Present day]

The whirring of the rotating bike wheels blanketed the comforting silence between two friends, occupied by their own thoughts.

A sudden thought occurred to a spiky-haired junior midway through the voyage to school.

"Hey, Echizen?"

Irritated by the interruption of his own thought, his myrtle-haired freshman companion spat, "What."

It wasn't a question; it was a demand of the purpose of interjection.

The taller of the two did not notice this petulance. Instead, he continued with his intention.

"Why do you always wear your hat?"

Ryoma was caught off guard by the question. He furrowed his brow in concentration. He didn't exactly recall when he started to wear his favorite Fila-brand cap. It just became… habitual. He felt naked without its comforting presence, for sure. But when did he start wearing it? And why?

He excavated the depths of his mind, searching for memories…

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"_Mommy…"_

"_Bye, Ryoma honey! Make lots of friends!!"_

"_Mommy…!!" he wailed, his voice more strained._

"_We'll see you in a few hours okay? Now give me a kiss good bye, okay?"_

_On the tips of his toes, Ryoma stood as tall as he could to give his knelt mother a peck on the cheek._

"_Hey, what about your old man?" chortled Nanjirou._

"_Bleah." A small tongue slipped out in a jeering manner._

"_Haha!! That's my brat of a kid."_

"_Bye sweetie!" bid Rinko._

"_Oh wait!" exclaimed Nanjirou. He reached into his coffee-colored robe and pulled out a new white cap. Then, he proceeded to promptly plop the obviously too large cap on his son's small head, which was wearing a bothered frown. "There we go! Bye, kid. Don't go hitting on all the girls!"_

_And with that, they left Ryoma in the care of Tokyo's Public Daycare Center._

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'_Phooey, why did Mommy leave?' pouted Ryoma. One of the staffers guided him over to the cubby holes, where he grumpily tossed his hat into one of the cubicles and flung his tennis shoes towards the ground_

_Unfortunately, one of these wayward shoes bounced, thus smacking a crouched child on the head who did not hesitate to respond with an "Ouch!"_

_A staffer quickly consoled the child to make sure that all was in good health and then left once it was confirmed all was well._

"_Sorry," sputtered Ryoma, eyes focused on his guilty footwear._

"_It's okay. Is it your first day here?"_

_Ryoma chanced a glance to meet with the large, auburn eyes of the child who was victim to his shoe. This child was characterized by a short bob of auburn hair not passing the ears, white shorts, and a light green tee-shirt._

"_Yeah." he responded, curious about this other child._

"_Me too! I'm a Ryuuzaki!" announced the child, wearing a honest smile. "What are you?"_

"_I'm an Echizen," echoed Ryoma. His reply was only met with a light-hearted giggle._

"_You're a funny Echizen. C'mon lets go play!"_

_The two hurried off into the main play area, where the other children were located._

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"_Step right up! It's Tomo's Fabulous Beauty Salon!"_

"_Let's go play over there!"_

_Ryoma, hesitantly, agreed and followed the Ryuuzaki kid._

"_Hi!" exclaimed a girl with perky pigtails. "Imma cut your hair!" she stated, pointing at Ryoma with a pudgy finger that sparkled with pink nail polish. She then showed a pair of safe-edge scissors, opening and closing them rapidly with a glint in her eyes._

"_For real??" Ryoma asked, tentatively and frightfully._

"_Of course not! Imma give you a fake haircut!!" she answered. She directed him with pushy hands over to an unoccupied chair and she took a large, stained pillow case and tied it around his neck. She then stood behind her customer, snipping amusedly at the air around the bad at his hair when…_snip.

"_Whoops."_

"_Whoops what?"_

"_Beauty specialist Tomo, you can fix this right?"_

"_Umm…"_

"_Fix what?" asked a worried Ryoma._

_A child passing by with a band aid on his cheek excitedly pointed out, "Hey! That kid's got a bald spot! I can see his head!"_

"_That's not very nice," affirmed his companion with an egg-esque shaped head. He walked over to console the prey of teasing: "It's okay… it's… not _that_ noticeable."_

"_If you stand ten bagillion feet away!" interjected the band aided kid, arms wide spread for emphasis. His outburst, unfortunately, was a little too alarming and he, plus the egg-esque kid, were pulled away by one of the caretakers to a group activity far away._

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Ryoma and Momoshiro peddled over to the bike rack.

"So, Echizen… are you gonna tell me what's the deal with the hat?"

"Daycare…" he plainly stated as he recalled his past.

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"_Wait! I know!" blurted the Ryuuzaki kid, who then hurriedly sped away and then returned with Ryoma's once-new-now-soiled hat._

"_Here."_

_Ryoma felt the weight of cloth upon his head. Hair ruffled and rearrange and hat adjusted, Ryuuzaki fixed him up as best as possible before standing back, admiring the repairs._

"_There." A smile glowed upon Ryuuzaki's face. "It suits you."_

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"Oi, Echizen are you blushing? Oh my god, don't tell me a girl gave you that thing?"

"Mada mada dane, Momo-chan-senpai."

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Elsewhere on Seigaku grounds, Osakada Tomoka twirled stylistically.

"Tomo-chan, you got a haircut. It suits you."

"You think so?" chirped her best friend in reply. "Hey… Sakuno, how come you won't get your haircut? I bet it'll look cute short!"

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_Ryoma presented a smirk in response –a smirk that would be very familiar to his future tennis opponents. But at that moment, it looked like gold._

"_Thank you, Ryuuzaki-_kun_."_

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Sakuno pulled at her long, twin braids consciously. She couldn't remember the reason, but she knew she could never cut her hair.

**Fin.**

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_His parents arrived to come pick him up from his first and last day at Toyko's Public Daycare Center._

_Ryoma, facing the doorway, stood at the pickup area, hand in hand with Ryuuzaki. Neither looked at each other._

"_So…you live in America?"_

"_Yeah." he responded regretfully._

_The grip tightened as his hand was squeezed faintly. "W-will I ever see you again?"_

"_I don't know."_

_Ryuuzaki gave the adjacent boy an intent stare. "Echizen, I'll…I-I'll grow my hair long for y-you."_

_Ryoma, confusion in his eyes, turned his head to meet the stare, but instead met a meek smile._

"_I really like an Echizen."_

_The words were already running through his mind. 'I—'_

"_Ryoma!" called Rinko from the door._

_Ryuuzaki leaned forward to give Ryoma a peck on the cheek. "We'll meet again, r-right?"_

"_It's a promise."_

_The bond between two hands broke as he was guided towards his parents. Ryoma then lowered the brim of his cap._

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_This would be the first of many times he would do this. To hide his expression, especially to cover the red tinge on his cheeks._

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**A/N: ** Thank you for reading! I really liked the idea of the story, but I think the execution of it is a little confusing (even for me). Many apologizes for spelling/grammar mistakes. I did check over though.... XS

If you want to see more stories by me, check out my profile! Please vote on the poll, too! I have a bunch of fanfic ideas listed and I want to know what people want to see.... XD

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So if you have any questions, just PM or put them in the form of a review! Even if you don't have a question, a review would be nice.

Thank you **Miyo-chan02**, **Otakugal**, **AquaJet**, **eternallove496, ****ryokochan19**, **sakuraheartz**, **YuKiOnA-Ga**, **Be-ya**, **'-'FreedomFairy'-'**, and **Pity-san** for your reviews!! The feedback made me very happy. :3  
**a can of ponta**, who doesn't like an Echizen? That's like criminal! Of course, **cityangelz**, we mustn't forget a Ryuuzaki. ;)  
Cotton candy and milk and cookies never stopped mattering, **umi**.

Wow... why do I have such nice reviewers?


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